Dry Spell Conjured Up in River System

After four or five good years of water flow in the Columbia and
Snake river system, it's dried up in a hurry. And the massive water
storage complex is just about tapped out.

"It's going to be a long summer," said Bob Heinith, hydro program
coordinator at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission in
Portland.

Make that a long, hot summer in which dam operators will lose
millions of dollars, and fish could die by the thousands, harmed by
high temperatures and low water levels.

It's unusual for the water prospects to change so quickly, officials
said. In recent times, "This is the first year when we have come into
a summer near average and had it go dry on us," said Cindy
Henriksen, chief of the Corps of Engineers Reservoir Control Center
in Portland. "So this is somewhat of a new experience for us."

Every year, river managers juggle competing power, recreation,
irrigation and fish demands for water, an act that's relatively easy
when there's lots of water to go around.

That's not the case this summer, with most of the region's large
reservoirs drained nearly as far as possible under current
agreements.

Even so, most irrigated farmers in the Basin and the Yakima Valley
expect to escape the brunt of any shortages.

The federal watermaster in the Yakima Valley doesn't expect the dry
year will cause irrigation water shortages, welcome news for a valley
where farmers still talk about severe irrigation cuts in 1994.

"It looks fairly good for our reservoirs right now," said Dave
Henneman, hydrologist for the Bureau of Reclamation in Yakima. "It
has been a fairly long dry spell, and that does (create) a lot of
demands, but we are able to provide adequate water."

But adequate water in a tributary such as the Yakima doesn't mean
main stem managers will have an easy time of it.

"This is obviously causing the region ... to rethink how to allocate the
water for the remainder of the summer," Henriksen said.

The way things are looking now, that exercise is just a warmup for
next year unless this winter's precipitation is far above normal. At
Grant County Public Utility District, Lon Topaz compared the river
with a checking account that's drained.

"If your ending balance is smaller, you are probably going to have
more trouble next year," he said.

This year is bad enough for Heinith.

"We're just stuck in a horrendous situation," he said. "The conditions
we are seeing out there is normally what we would see in late
August. We are a month ahead in terms of temperatures."

High temperatures harm returning fish by sapping their spawning
strength and making it easier for disease to spread through the
population.

Heinith predicts that by September, the flow at Lower Granite Dam
near Lewiston will be about 20,000 cubic feet per second, not even
half of target flows to make sure the river is hospitable for migrating
salmon. Right now, it's about 79 percent of normal.

"This is the first year that I can recall where we are not going to meet
spring flow targets as well as the summer (targets)," Heinith said.

What started out as a fairly normal "water year" turned sharply for
the worse in May and June with dry weather across the region,
Henriksen said.

At the start of June, summer water projections at The Dalles Dam
was for 97 percent of normal. A month later, it was for 90 percent of
normal.

"This year we have had a very dry June, so many of the reservoirs
did not fill completely," Henriksen said, noting river managers made
a "conscious decision" to use storage water for fish in the early
summer rather than late summer.

"We have this awful bargain in years like this," said Tim Stearns,
director of the National Wildlife Foundation's natural resource center
in Seattle. "Do you help spring fish, or do you save it for fall fish?"

Stearns said it's not clear yet if there will be enough water in the
Snake system to cool the river for returning adults in late August and
September.

Chances don't look good.

At McNary Dam, flows are about 165,000 cubic feet per second,
compared with 200,000 cfs in mid-July in recent years.

And the water that's coming into the McNary from the Snake River is
far too hot for fish, said Heinith, who plans today to ask river
managers to turn off two turbines at McNary so they don't fill the fish
collection chambers with 72-degree water.

He blames the Corps for the current predicament, saying it released
too much water from reservoirs too soon for flood control and spring
fish. The tribes traditionally advocate saving water for the fall to
support the large tribal and sport fishery.

Heinith and Stearns predicted the region would see a decrease in
salmon returns three and four years from now, when this year's fish
are due to return to the river.

But fish aren't the only concern in the Basin. Less water means less
money for dam operators such as the Grant PUD. Topaz said his
utility budgets conservatively to account for short water years like
this one.

"In a sense, we'll lose some opportunities," he said, "It's just a few
million dollars of expectations we might have that now might not get
realized. ... We won't be in any difficulty."